Charlize Theron Has Considered Leaving U.S. for the Safety of her Black Children

“Racism is much more alive and well than people thought,” she said of the current political climate in an interview with 'Elle.'

Charlize Theron is no stranger to racial inequality. “Being raised during the apartheid era in South Africa made me so hyper-aware of equality and human rights,” the Tully star shares in an interview with Chelsea Handler for the May cover of Elle.

Throughout the interview, the actress discusses how she navigates the current political climate as the mother of two black children — Jackson, six, and August, two — that she adopted and co-parents with her mother. “I don’t even know how to talk about the last year under our new administration. But racism is much more alive and well than people thought,” she said. “We can’t deny it anymore. We have to be vocal.”

Theron explains that she has considered leaving the United States for the safety of her children. “There are places in this country where, if I got a job, I wouldn’t take it. I wouldn’t travel with my kids to some parts of America, and that’s really problematic,” she says. “There are a lot of times when I look at my kids and I’m like, if this continues, I might have to [leave America]. Because the last thing I want is for my children to feel unsafe.”

She adds that she wants her kids to be proud of their background. “I want them to know who they are, and I want them to be so fucking proud of who they are. Building confidence for them right now is an oath I made to myself when I brought them home,” she says. “They need to know where they come from and be proud of that. But they’re going to have to know that it’s a different climate for them than it is for me, and how unfair that is. If I can do something about that, of course I’m going to.”